Talk:Lucas and Riley/@comment-26920437-20150823192304
These observations are more to do with Yearbook and Semiformal, but I think they are still relevant in the context of Creativity so here goes. The whole "I love them like a sibling" concept really bothers me. It perpetuates the idea that you can either have a totally romantic or totally platonic relationship with someone you could potentially be attracted to, nothing in between. What's more, it totally discounts friendship as a valid relationship between two people who also have the potential to be attracted to each other, in this case boys and girls. Why does it have to be either or? I think the crux of the issue with Riley is that she has both romantic and platonic feelings for Lucas (I just wish they would use better vocabulary than "like a brother"). Behaving in an incredibly mature way for her age (with great guidance from the adults in her life), she is choosing to act on the platonic feelings for now, and leave the romantic ones aside given that Lucas is not just her crush, he is also one of her best friends. There's too much at stake in becoming boyfriend and girlfriend - that's probably why they felt so much pressure when they tried. The writers are highlighting really interesting issues in young people's lives, which get totally lost in ship wars, all about tabulating "moments" rather than watching the story as a whole. Riley and Lucas aren't ready to act on their romantic feelings but that doesn't mean they're not there - and predictably, they show up more explicitly whenever there is an external threat/push. But more importantly, they are both incredibly invested in their friendship and their friend-group and right now that is rightly their first priority. It's interesting to think about Maya's "discovery" in that light. What if Maya only saw Lucas as Riley's crush/love interest and didn't perceive the depth of their friendship, and how much they had in common, and that was actually what she learned? Rather than a soap-opera love triangle (ugh), it would be great to see them deal with Maya's insecurities about Riley getting close to someone with whom she has much more in common. I would be so happy if that is why they are taking the Maya-Lucas friendship past the constant teasing to a more genuine level. Maya has to start taking Lucas seriously for her to understand just how close Riley and Lucas are as friends... and that has real potential for a meaningful plot between the girls (like in Mr. Squirrels with the "short stack of pancakes" incident, but even more intense) with affirmation at the end that they are each other's number one... RING POWER! These were also issues they dealth with really well in BMW with Cory and Shawn. In the end, I really just want the focus to stay on Riley and Maya's friendship because that has always been the best part of the show! Fingers crossed for convincing writing... that's all!